Embodiments described herein relate to the field of security system, access control, business process. The embodiments described herein relate to the door lock hardware, cryptographically secured wireless communication network, multi-tiered client-server software architecture. Some embodiments relate to comprehensive realization of intelligent, robust and secure methods to secure doors in the event of violent threat posed by a perpetrator who wants to harm people in a set of building and rooms.
Physical access control locks mounted on a door have existed for centuries. Lock state can be put in secure or open state by manipulating the lock with a specific key. Mechanical keys suffer from a small range of unique keying possibilities (for example a 7 lever lock has only approximately 20,000 unique key cuts) and it is easy to duplicate a key without the knowledge of the key's owner. Recently, electronic door locks (EDLs) have been invented that employ non-mechanical features to provide a very large range of possible keying options (For example a 20 bit code provides approximately one million unique keys) using an electronic key (“E-Key” or “Ekey”). Adding cryptographic protection further secures information privacy stored in EDLs and Ekeys. An Ekey is used in many situations to unlock doors or otherwise provide access to a secure area. Many new hotels and business places, residences and the like utilize such Ekeys, often in the form of electronically readable cards. Such Ekeys can be in the form of card keys, keyfobs, tokens and the like. Examples of Ekey technologies can include magnetic stripe cards, smart cards, near field radio frequency communications (“NFC”), radio frequency identification (“RFID”), passive RFID, active RFID, and so forth. Whichever technology is used, the Ekey typically communicates with an EDL or other suitable electronic lock or access device. The EDL or other electronic access device can then read a particular identification (“ID”) code on the Ekey (often supported by a cryptographic security means) and provide or deny access based upon whether the ID code is acceptable to the EDL.
Many types of Ekey and EDL technologies require that the card or key fob being used be physically placed into contact with the EDL, such as in the case of magnetic stripe cards, smart cards, memory chip cards and fobs. Of course, such applications tend to require the user to physically manipulate the Ekey, such as to insert a card into a slot in the EDL. Other types of technologies can allow for applications where no physical contact is required between the Ekey and EDL, such as in the case of NFC cards and readers. Unfortunately, NFC applications typically need the Ekey to be within a few centimeters of the EDL or other reader, such that users are usually required to handle or otherwise manipulate the Ekey to some degree.
Long range keys (“LR-Keys”) operate like Ekeys albeit at much greater distance. A typical challenge of long distance operation is avoiding inadvertently opening the EDL not just from outside the door but inside the door (the latter being a serious problem).
Recent shootings at school and university campuses have demonstrated the importance of protecting staff and students from harm in the event of a shooter on campus. One component of the protection strategy involves preventing the shooter from entering buildings and rooms that may be populated by potential victims.
One protection method is called ‘Lockdown’, where entrance through doors is limited by the door lock to a very small set of people, such as police and emergency responders. Even if the shooter possesses a valid Ekey (possibly obtained by threat of force from an innocent person having normal access), the shooter would not be able to unlock a door lock that is in ‘Lockdown’ mode. The shooter would thus be obstructed from entering a room full of innocent people (potential victims).
In a classical (prior art) access control system (also known as building security system), the lockdown command is issued centrally, for example by campus police, after an incident is reported. Campus police would initiate the lockdown on an access control system's control station that is connected to EDLs through a wired or wireless network, and the access control system would affect lockdown commands to the EDLs over that network. One disadvantage of this approach is a long response time: A person on campus has to call or by some means notify campus police. Police then have to manually activate the lockdown and the lockdown command has to propagate to the door readers. Another potential disadvantage is that this method has one or more single points of failure, including the access control system's server (central control station) and its network connections. To overcome this disadvantage, one has to invest in fail-safe or fault-tolerant:
a. Server computer hardware & storage sub-system
b. Server software system
c. Network switches and cabling
all of which is extremely expensive to build, maintain, certify and check system integrity at all times. It is rare to find an enterprise that is willing to invest so heavily in such a system, due to above mentioned difficulties.
A second prior art method that is sometimes employed is to allow users to initiate a lockdown manually on individual doors. While this has the advantage that it immediately protects the individual user who activates the lockdown, it does not protect people in other rooms who are not yet aware of the danger.
There are some prior art ACS that employ wireless EDLs that allow lockdown of all EDLs connected to a set of wireless routers (that provide wireless connectivity to the wireless EDLs). Such systems are inflexible because the need for locking down a specific set of EDLs can rarely be physically controlled such that a specific wireless router provides connectivity only to the desired set of EDLs (nothing more and nothing less).
In this disclosure we present methods and systems that help to overcome many disadvantages of the traditional methods that were described above, and other disadvantages, and we provide novel functionality.